Mr. Mayor, please give an ear to others

Sunday

Mar 31, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Dear Anthony,

Donald W. Blount

Dear Anthony,

I hope things are going well with you as last week was certainly an eventful one with the announcement of your tax plan and all.

I must say, I was a bit impressed when I saw the photo of you standing at the podium at your news conference unveiling your tax initiative to put more cops on the street with, among others, former New York City police commissioner William Bratton, Stockton Unified School District Trustee Gloria Allen and Manteca Unified School District Trustee Sam Fant.

It was a whole lot of people up there.

I think pretty much all law-abiding people would agree that Stockton's crime problem needs to be addressed and that pretty much any idea to reduce crime would be a good one.

It would seem that your news conference would have carried more weight if you had been standing there with some of your fellow city officials, such as City Manager Bob Deis, Police Chief Eric Jones and Councilwoman Kathy Miller. Granted, you did have one council member there - Michael Tubbs - who, if I understand things correctly, arrived late, in part, because he learned about the meeting through Facebook.

Thank goodness for social media, right? I guess you were just too busy setting things up to discuss this plan or invite your colleagues?

I doubt many of them could have attended anyway.

I mean, at least several of them were in Sacramento attending and testifying at Stockton's bankruptcy trial.

Why worry about a legal review of Stockton's ability to go through with bankruptcy when the focus should be on what you want to do? We all have to set our priorities.

But as you stood there discussing your plan, I was reminded of October 2007, when those Franklin High football players participated in a game against Tracy despite being ruled ineligible by the California Interscholastic Federation Sac-Joaquin Section. You were the president of the SUSD board that gave direction for those players to suit up despite the suspension.

And then I remembered the consequences for Franklin and the district. I thought about how since then you lost re-election to SUSD, an election to Lodi Unified School Board and then managed to win the Stockton mayor's race.

You came in for editorial board interviews at The Record and said you had learned from that Franklin situation. That you were impressionable and had allowed yourself to be directed by people from whom you should had not taken advice.

And then I see the news conference on Tuesday. I sure hope that bankruptcy judge was not watching.

I mean, suppose he says, "Hey, Stockton if you can have a tax increase for more cops, then no, you cannot go into bankruptcy and have a tax increase to pay your bills, you deadbeats."

That would not be cool at all. I am not a legal expert, so I do not know if that can happen.

I am also not a police expert but I will admit to being concerned that you have not discussed this idea in-depth with Jones or announced that your plan has his backing. That would at least make me, and maybe others, more comfortable.

I also have concerns that in just a few months you seem to have alienated a number of your fellow council members, including the new ones.

You have said that "you will not be muzzled, silenced or bullied" but it seems that perhaps you want to be the bully.

Like a bull in a china shop, you're pushing through a plan that appears to have no backing from any of your government colleagues. Oh, that's right, they cannot be trusted, which is why you had your office locks changed.

I thought government was about cooperation, gaining allies and getting the votes needed to pass legislation that will benefit the people who elected those officials into office?

I am reminded of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who spent the first part of his term calling legislators names and trying to ram through his legislation. It took a resounding defeat in a special election for the Governator to change his tune and learn that his way was not going to work.

I urge you to learn from his lesson so you do not suffer the same fate.

Contact Donald W. Blount at (209) 546-8251 or dblount@recordnet.com. The Record senior editors' blog is available at recordnet.com/editorblog.